Friday, September 18, 2009

MAP, 1961 by Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns, Jr. (born May 15, 1930 in Augusta, Georgia) is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking. Flags, targets, stenciled words, numbers, and maps such as this painting were themes used by Johns in the 1960's. The work above is called MAP (1961; Encaustic, oil, and collage) on exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. Philip Yenawine writes, "Just as any map represents an enormous geographic, political, and social complex, just as it uses lines and place names to render comprehensible a variety of people and places - countryside and town, water and mountain - Johns brings up the many sides of representation, from diagrams to words to the painted language of lines, color, texture, and gesture. By acting within a tight framework, he opens the door to a vast nexus of visual possibilities, as well as ideas."